Monday, July 24, 2017

I’m going to France – so the long wind-up begins

I’m going for a long time, I mean, for ten months or so. I’m going in a week. What an adventure! But it means this other adventure will have to adapt. To end, in an important sense. The tenth anniversary of Wuthering Expectations would be at the end of September, so I appreciate the pleasing, non-neurotic irregularity of changing now.

A decade ago when I embarked on this folly, I knew – oh, I knew so many things – I knew that I needed a strong structure to keep myself going. Few things in life are easier than not writing a blog post. Thus the idea of writing something every workday, something, something. And I think I have done it, five days a week, excepting vacations and holidays and, to my memory, one day.

I won’t miss giving up that.

It is time to consider other kinds of writing: other lengths, venues, subjects, forms. France will give me a chance to play around, perhaps even, who knows, to think. Perhaps I will convert the website into an early film blog, or the glutton blog I have always dreamed of. Whatever I do, I will put it here, somehow. Why not?

I have no preconceptions. No idea what I will write, or how much, or for that matter – more importantly, right? – what I will read, or how much. The funny thing is that my reading will be more English-language than ever, since my French is too poor to read much – my hope is that I can convert my bad A2 French into decent A2 French – and the hardest books to find in France will be anything in English translation. But I will have Conrad’s Under Western Eyes for the airplane, and I’ll have the internet, and France has libraries, good ones. And bookstores, oh what bookstores, although the last thing I should do in France is buy books.

I do plan to be at the Frankfurt Book Fair in October, and the Quais du Polar in Lyon in April, not to buy books, but just to see them. They should be interesting, yes? I can file dispatches, pretending I am a bookish reporter.

Henry Adams wrote about himself in The Education (1907) “that what he valued most was Motion, and that what attracted his mind was Change” (Ch. XV). Me too, mostly, and I will be getting plenty of that.

I had the idea, once, that I would wind up Wuthering Expectations with a series on Daniel Pennac’s The Rights of the Reader (1992) – please see Book around the Corner, off to the right somewhere, and down a bit, for all ten rights – which was appealing in part because #10 is “The right to be quiet.” But I’m not going to be quiet, so that won’t work.

But this five posts a week nonsense has to go, except for this week, the last one. Four to go.

40 comments:

Wow, you are soooo fortunate! I'm very excited for you! I admire your perseverance and dedication but certainly you must use the time to explore your new country. All the best to you and I look forward to hearing about your experiences!! Vive la France!

Early on, I went to Japan for a month, for work (long, long work days), and I thought, "Well, this does in the blog," right?" But it was a turning point, and not just because I kept the schedule. I gained a clearer sense of what I was doing. Keeping a five-a-week schedule has never since been as hard as that (except mentally!).

This time the travel is also work-related, but not my work. I will have a "study abroad" year.

I guess I was never too tempted to disappear. Who knows what will happen, who knows, who knows? As I have been saying to myself for months.

Happy and excited for you but actually pretty gutted not to be getting my daily dose of Amateur Tom. This blog really is one of the greatest things out there and it has meant a lot to me. Looking forward to seeing what comes next.

Best of luck on your new adventures! I've enjoyed your past bookish investigations and explorations, especially your wrestles with Henry James who is one of my favorites, and am making my way through Italy with Goethe right now thanks to your recommendation. Bon voyage!

This is big news indeed, both exciting and disconcerting. As others have already commented, your wonderful (and remarkably regular) posts have been a staple of my reading life for years. I have also - in that way the internet so marvelously makes possible - come to think of you as a friend, even though in some ways I suppose I hardly know you. But then, I know what you read and how you write about it: that's probably more revealing than someone's full name! Whatever you decide to write, I will keep reading: I'm very glad you don't plan to disappear. Best wishes for this next adventure, which seems sure to be a bookish one in some way.

Hope this doesn't duplicate: tried commenting a couple of times but failed to publish. Just wanted to add my own sense of sadness that you will no longer provide your insightful posts - but hope that you'll find some new way of communicating what you're thinking about what you're reading. Best of luck in France.

I'm more than impressed by you stamina and the five posts a week for 10 years. I don't know how you did it. I'll follow the new version of Wuthering Expectations and your adventures in France.

Happy to have you spend 10 months here and thanks for the mention about Pennac's Ten Rights of the Reader. I love this man and his joyous and irreverent love for literature.

I'm sure your French will improve greatly and you'll get used to it and be fluent when you leave. You know what happened to me today? I was in a museum and they mixed up my audioguide and gave me one in English instead of French. It took me a few minutes to realize I didn't have one in my native language. I'm so surrounded by English all the time that I didn't even notice. In ten months, that's going to be you in France. French won't sound so foreign.

Glad you plan on visiting Quais du Polar. Lucky you, they have a stand with books in English.

There will also be Le Salon du Livre in Paris and La Fête du Livre de Bron (Lyon's suburb, both in March.If you have the chance, I guess that going to Angoulême for the festival of Bandes Dessinées is worth the trip.

Meanwhile, good luck with the packing and have a safe trip. See you around.

Like Rohan, I declare Wuthering Expectations a part of my daily reading fare, and I'm a little alarmed that you've got the nerve to make such an important decision on your own. I just spent two weeks in the Netherlands, and WE was one of the few websites I checked during my travels.

On the other hand, I didn't post a word anywhere during those two weeks, and now that I'm back, I find that it is indeed very easy to continue not posting.

Let’s see. What to say. What nice responses. They are an argument against closing a blog. It’s bad for the vanity. “greatest thing out there” – all right! That’s the spirit.

I know what people mean about the end of the regular stream of posts, especially over years. Even if – when – you fall away from it, stop reading for a while, it is still there when you return. I know I’ll be shocked when Patrick Kurp stops writing Anecdotal Evidence. He posts every day, even on vacation! And I read it, or at least look at it, every day except when I’m on vacation. It’s like we’re writing newspaper comic strips.

The friendships are a real pleasure of book blogging, and a surprise to me. I’ve only met two book bloggers in so-called real life.

Speaking of which, Lisa – yes, let’s meet in Frankfurt, that would be a pleasure. I believe you have already met my wife, actually, possibly very briefly, at ALTA.How nice to hear that I have inspired someone to read Italian Journey.

If our apartment has a guest room that means me made a mistake and could have gotten something cheaper, but if anyone is coming to Lyon in the fall, we can help you with your AirB&B selection. Let Emma know you’re coming, too.We saw Chartres a couple of visits ago, but the big stained-glass window that tells the story of The Song of Roland was covered up, so we have to go back. I don’t know when.

Emma has reminded me that I should write a bit more about Pennac’s book. Easy to recommend to any reader, but especially to any teacher.

Your encouragement about the language is very helpful! Your list of book shows is just one more example of French cultural riches.

Very best of luck whatever you decide, Tom. Your blog (like Anecdotal Evidence) is part of my daily reading diet. I like what you do here very much. If it evolves into a film or glutton blog I'll happily read along.

Noooo! Where am I going to get my dose of thoughtful, eloquent responses to literature? I mean, I get that the chance to drop everything and move to France is pretty irresistible, but still. I'll try to make the time pass quickly (lots of editing work will help), but don't you dare disappear for good!

Surely someone will fill the gap now that the field is cleared. Someone else who reads style-first, as I wrote yesterday. I guess I was a little surprised how few people read style-first. I mean, I did not expect there to be a lot.

A big change. Potentially quite a distressing one. But I hope you'll be able to give us the benefit of your insights and knowledge in another form in the not too distant future. More importantly, I hope you have a whale of a time in France.

Thanks directly to Years of reading your posts I discovered the amazing world of Yiddish literature, your Portuguese event lead me to late 19th century Brazilian short stories, your Scottish period reunited me with an old hero, James Boswell, your great series of posts on Balzac motivated me to embark on a full read through of his La Comedie Humaine, almost finished it now.

I also think the imposed discipline of regular blog posts have helped keep me going through some now passed dark times.

Sometimes your posts are beyond by level of erudition but I always read them.

I am a relative newcomer to this blog, but I have often dipped into earlier comments on specific authors to see whether your opinions of one work by an author I admire is similar to others you expressed before I arrived on scene. I have received great pleasure from these columns and our occasional exchanges over the two years or so that I have been reading. Since I am in Oxford myself at the moment, I certainly won't criticize your desire to spend time traveling. I hope, however, that we have not seen the last of your literary scribbling.

Mel, it is lovely to hear that. The project years were terrific - Yiddish, Portuguese, Austrian, etc. More people should do them. Pick a tradition you don't really know, pick, I don't know, three standard books. It'll be great. Pick ten books and it'll be even better.

Let's see, where is Balzac buried? Père Lachaise. Got it.

The great danger of having ten years of posts is that I suspect that I sometimes just assume that everyone has read and remembers whatever I wrote about whatever book, which is ludicrous.

The great danger of having fifteen years of posts, plus being in my mid-60s, is that I just assume that I remember whatever I wrote, which is also ludicrous (and leads to repeat posts). On the plus side, I no longer assume that, and try to remember to search the archives for whatever I've just thought about posting.

I hope this ten months is wonderful. And whatever you put here, I'll read. Thanks for so many ideas -- I've absorbed more of your writing over the years than plenty of my favorite authors. No regrets, dude.

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I too could now say to myself: Be no longer a Chaos, but a World, or even Worldkin. Produce! Produce! Were it but the pitifullest infinitesimal fraction of a Product, produce it in God's name! 'Tis the utmost thou hast in thee; out with it then. Up, up! Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy whole might. Work while it is called To-day, for the Night cometh wherein no man can work.